Reppin' while reffin' - the story of Australia's five World Cup referees

Eddie Lennie - 1998

"It was the best experience," said Eddie Lennie in a 2015 chat with Dutch Referee Blog. "To be involved and work with 32 referees from around the world was fantastic. It was the first World Cup that FIFA had all the referees live, work, eat, sleep in the one hotel which bonded many friendships which have still lasted today."

At a time of excellent refs, Lennie found himself in fine company at France '98, with such names as Norway's Rune Pedersen, Switzerland's Urs Meier, and the greatest of all - the Italian six-time FIFA Referee of the Year, Pierluigi Collina.

Eddie Lennie dishes out a first-half dismissal in Montpellier as Italy defeat Cameroon at France '98

On the field, Glasgow-born Lennie was appointed to two matches - and, like the games of Boskovic and Bambridge before him, they weren't without incident.

In the first, a Group B clash in Montpellier between Italy and Cameroon, Italy were 1-0 up when, on 43 minutes, Cameroon defender Raymond Kalla slid two-footed into the goalscorer, Luigi Di Biagio. Lennie produced the red card, Italy won 3-0 and Kalla was subsequently banned for two matches.

The second match was between Romania and Tunisia in Group G. It was the game for which, in what has become an enduring and iconic World Cup image, the Romanian squad had, to a man, bleached their hair a fluorescent blonde.

Lennie awarded Tunisia a soft early penalty, allowing Skander Souayeh to convert his team's only goal of the tournament. A frustrated Marius Lacatus then cuffed Tunisia captain Sami Trabelsi round the jaw in open play, but escaped punishment as Lennie missed the incident, and the eleven men found an equaliser.



Lennie hung up his whistle in 2004 and was inducted into the FFA’s Football Hall of Fame in 2007. A greater honour came the following year as he was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia.

But do those five-or-so weeks spent mingling with his peers in France in 1998 top it all? In Lennie's own words, it was the "pinnacle of many years of refereeing around the world."